Tito Ortiz to face Matt Hamill at UFC 121

via media.ufc.tv

A source with knowledge of the situation told MMA Fighting that "The Huntington Beach Bad Boy" will face Matt Hamill at UFC 121, and UFC President Dana White subsequently confirmed the matchup in a text message.

This is an intriguing matchup for a couple different reasons.

First of all, Tito Ortiz was Matt Hamill’s coach on the third season of The Ultimate Fighter. He took the deaf fighter under his wing and really took a shine to him – to such an extent that the other fighters on the team started to hate Hamill for it. They thought he was "the teacher’s pet". Ortiz and Hamill remained close after the show and kept training together for a year or so. Ortiz was fond of saying that Hamill was a "future world champion" at the time of the show. He was definitely Hamill’s biggest supporter. The teacher vs student angle is always an interesting one. Hamill isn't unfamiliar with it - he fought his friend and training partner Rich Franklin at UFC 88. Strangely enough, it was Franklin who got Hamill on The Ultimate Fighter.

Secondly, this is an interesting style matchup. Both men are good wrestlers who can stand and trade shots. This will more than likely turn into a brawl, since their wrestling will most likely cancel each other out. Should Hamill get Ortiz to the ground, how will he handle Ortiz’s grappling abilities? Ortiz nearly submitted Lyoto Machida from his back.

Of course the questions of Tito’s health at this point will always be raised- he’s coming back from yet another surgery, this time on his neck. Matt Hamill should be the considerable favorite in this fight, and rightfully so. Tito hasn’t won a fight since the fall of 2006, when he beat Ken Shamrock for the third time. But it should still be a competitive and fun fight. Tito, for his faults (and they are many), still remained competitive with Rashad Evans and Forrest Griffin, two elite level light heavyweights, and he nearly submitted Lyoto Machida. Matt Hamill isn’t an elite level light heavyweight, but he’ll still give Tito all he can handle.

It should be a great fight and a good barometer of where both men are at in this stage of their respective careers.